Advisors

Lawrence J Botticelli, PhD

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With twenty five years experience in the Life Sciences industry, Dr Botticelli possesses a far ranging background centered on the development and commercialization of biomedical innovation. Currently, Dr Botticelli currently serves as Chief Business Officer of the Institute for Biopharmaceutical Partnerships at TUFTS University. A member of the University Advancement division, he is responsible for establishing strategic alliances with the pharmaceutical industry.Previously, he served as Managing Director of Commercial Development and as Director of Strategic Initiatives for Life Sciences in The Office of the Provost at the University of Pennsylvania. Here he was responsible for identifying technological and clinical innovations and establishing strategic collaborative R&D and clinical investigative alliances about translational research developments. Those activities were pursued on an ‘enterprise-wide’ basis between all operating units of the University and global pharmaceutical, healthcare, and related corporations.

Beginning his career on Wall Street, Dr Botticelli served as a Life Sciences Technology merchant banker for such firms as Rothschild Inc and The First Boston Corporation. Dr Botticelli received his Ph.D. from M. I. T. and then completed his post-doctoral training at the Stanford University School of Medicine (Pharmacology). He also attended The Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania (Strategic Management & Finance).

Dalia Cohen, M.Sc., Ph.D.

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Dr. Cohen is a pharmaceutical industry expert in the intersection of drug discovery, personalized medicine and genomic technologies with over 25 years of experience. Currently, she is a member of the Scientific Advisory Board for the Massachusetts Life Science Center and the founder of ALN Associates a life sciences consultancy providing services to pharmaceutical, biotechnology, academia and venture capital firms . Most recently, Dr. Cohen served as the Chief Scientific Officer at Asterand where she designed, led and implemented the company scientific strategy. Before this appointment, Dr. Cohen served as the Chief Scientific Officer of Rosetta Genomics, a microRNA-based diagnostic company. During her four years at Rosetta Genomics, she led the company’s product development and launched three cancer diagnostic tests. Prior to joining Rosetta Genomics, Dr. Cohen worked for 15 years at Novartis and held several executive positions including Vice President & Global Head of the Functional Genomics Department where she led multi-disciplinary teams in Switzerland and the United States. Prior to Novartis, Dr. Cohen was at Sandoz Pharmaceutical as a Research Fellow in the Oncology department and was the Group Leader for the development of several compounds. Dr. Cohen is an Adjunct Professor at the UMDNJ-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School. Dr. Cohen holds a M.Sc. in virology and a Ph.D. in Cell Biology from the Faculty of Medicine at Technion, Israel Institute of Technology and was a postdoctoral fellow at Albert Einstein college of Medicine.

William Denman, MD

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Dr Denman is an accomplished executive physician that has had a distinguished career in both the academic and industrial arenas. Most recently Dr Denman was Chief Medical Officer and VP Medical Affairs, Medical Devices for Covidien (Tyco Healthcare). In this role he was responsible for a division with over $6B in revenue. Prior to this he was Global Medical Director and Vice President of Medical Affairs. He was a strategic advisor to Covidien’s Venture Capital Fund and is a voting member of the Medicare Evidence Development and Coverage Committee.Dr Denman is a practicing Anesthesiologist at Massachusetts General Hospital and was Chief of Pediatric Anesthesia ate the Floating Hospital for Children. He received his MD from the University of Aberdeen in the UK.

Lawrence Fitzgerald, PhD, MBA

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Dr. Fitzgerald is President and Owner of LW Fitzgerald Consulting LLC, a firm focused on providing expert strategic and operational services for a variety of clients engaged in drug discovery including pharma, biotech, academia, non-profit organizations and government agencies. Dr. Fitzgerald is an accomplished “drug hunter” with more than 17 years of drug discovery and research leadership experience in the Neurosciences in both large pharma and small start-up biotech settings. Over this period, his teams have advanced more than 15 drug candidates into clinical development.

Previously, Dr. Fitzgerald was Vice President of Biology of Sage Therapeutics, Inc. where he led discovery biology and translational science efforts focused on a proprietary platform of allosteric modulators of glutamate and GABA receptors for treating a range of central nervous system disorders. He was also Vice President of Biology at Lundbeck Research USA where his team focused on innovative therapeutic approaches to treating pathological structure and function of synapses and neural circuits involved in psychiatric and neurological diseases. Prior to Lundbeck, Dr. Fitzgerald was Director and Head of Neuroscience Biology at AstraZeneca Pharmaceuticals. He also served in multiple discovery leadership roles in the Neuroscience therapeutic area while at Pfizer, Inc. For example, he led strategy and research operations within the Attention Deficit and Hyperactivity (ADHD) and Alzheimer’s disease focus areas. Dr. Fitzgerald is also a research leader and innovator within the Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) area. He was Founder and Senior Director of Pfizer’s Autism Research Unit. He has since led multiple drug discovery and development efforts for ASD that included forging innovative partnerships with nonprofit and government agencies. Earlier in his career he was a Senior Scientist at DuPont Merck Pharmaceutical Co. and Associate Fellow at Pharmacia Corporation. As a broadly trained pharmacologist, he has published more than 50 peer-reviewed research articles, reviews, and book chapters in areas such as the molecular pharmacology of serotonin receptors, and the role of glutamate receptors in neuropsychiatric disease and the neural plasticity of drug addiction.

Richard Gill, PhD

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Dr. Gill has over 28 years of strategic management, research, and technology commercialization experience in the life sciences industry. He recently served as President and Chief Executive Officer of ProNAi Therapeutics, a DNAi Drug Development Company. Previsously Richard was President and Chief Executive Officer of Signet Laboratories, an Evidence Based Medicine company, for which was sold to Covance. Prior to that, he was President and Chief Executive Officer of AnVil, the preeminent commercialization partner to the life sciences industry focused on in silico drug discovery and drug development solutions.Richard is an active BOD member with a nubmer of early stage companies:

Lyle A. Hohnke, B.A., M.A., Ph.D., MBA

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Dr. Hohnke, general partner for Tullis-Dickerson since 1994, is a graduate of Western Michigan University (BA), the University of Oregon (MA/Ph.D.), UCLA School of Medicine (Postdoctoral Fellow) and the Hartford Graduate Center (MBA); he has significant investment experience in early and expansion stage life science and technology oriented investments.Dr. Hohnke’s professional career began at Pfizer Central Research where he served in successive positions and headed research and development of therapeutic agents for digestive diseases. In 1983, he joined the University of Connecticut Health Center as Vice President for Research and Director of Patents and Licensing. He later founded and served as President of the University of Connecticut Research and Development Corporation where he co-founded several healthcare related University spin-off ventures including TargeTech and Connecticut Seed Ventures, a $12 million venture capital fund comprised of state and corporate monies.

Dr. Hohnke also served as a general partner for Heart Land Seed Capital Fund in Des Moines, Iowa from 1991-1993 where he managed all investment activities of the fund. In 1994, he led a leveraged buy-out team to purchase Diamond Animal Health, an agricultural biotechnology company from Bayer, Inc., where he served as Chairman & CEO until merging the company in 1996 with Heska Corporation, a publicly traded animal healthcare company. Dr. Hohnke currently serves on the board of several private biotechnology & healthcare companies.

Jack Model, MD

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Dr. Modell is a board-certified psychiatrist with 20 years experience across a variety of medical specialties in both top pharma companies and academic research institution. His breadth of expertise spans clinical research and patient care, clinical drug development (phase II-IV), medical affairs, NDA filings, medical governance, drug safety and compliance.He is a recognized expert in psychopharmacology, drug development, clinical research medical governance, psychiatric diagnosis and treatment, teaching, personnel management and development, diversity and inclusion, leadership, mentoring, and advocacy.

Dr Model’s industry experience includes executive level roles at GlaxoSmithKline including:Vice President, Medical Governance – where he was responsible for creating and implementing standards for clinical research, pharmacovigilance and medical information across all therapeutic areas.Global Vice President Neurosciences – where he led a 40 person team responsible for GSK global neuroscience portfolio (neurology and psychiatry)

Michael Palfreyman, PhD

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Michael G. Palfreyman is a seasoned leader in the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries with over 35 years experience. He is currently President and CEO of Vitruvean, Inc and VP Program Management and Product Development at EnVivo Pharmaceuticals. Prior to his position at EnVivo, Michael co-founded NOVACE Corporation, a network of entrepreneurs providing scientific, and strategic management solutions to the biotechnology industry and venture capital community. Prior to this, Michael was Founder, President and Chief Scientific Officer of Psychiatric Genomics, a biotechnology company developing genome-based approaches to drug discovery for the treatment of Mental Illness. From 1994-2000 he was Senior Vice President of Research & Development at Scriptgen (Anadys) Pharmaceuticals, a biotechnology company specializing in genomic-based drug discovery in infectious diseases. Before joining Scriptgen, Michael held a number of executive positions at Marion Merrell Dow Research Institute (Aventis), including Head of CNS Research, Director of Pharmacological Sciences, Co-Chair Pipeline Evaluation Team, Vice President Global Biological and Scientific Affairs, Vice President Research, North America and Member of the Research & Development Executive Management Team. He has been an invited speaker and chairperson for a number of international and national conferences, is co-inventor on 35 issued US patents, 3 pending patents and co-author of over 150 scientific articles and book chapters.

Nicholas A. Saccomano, Ph.D.

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Nick Saccomano has worked in the pharmaceutical and biotech industries for the past 25 years. In that time he has managed drug discovery and development programs as well as the multi-disciplinary departments which support the R and D process. Nick has been an active advocate of new technology development and utilization to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of R & D and enhance the quality of the resulting therapeutic interventions. Nick is a strong proponent of strategic alliances and public-private partnerships recognizing that the difficulty and complexity of the questions posed in biomedical research require the innovation and insights of a broader cohort than can be housed in a single organization, institute or academy.Nick joined Pfizer in 1984 and held several positions beginning with CNS drug discovery and development. He was fortunate to lead the teams that brought several new drug candidates to Proof-of-Concept studies in the clinic for both psychiatric and neurological disorders. Three of the programs he contributed to or managed are now marketed therapeutic agents; Aricept, Geodon and Chantix. Excited by the power of technology and interdisciplinary teams to solve tough R and D problems, Nick then led the groups that developed, integrated and managed new and extant technologies to support and advance the drug discovery process. It was at in this role that Nick saw it as critical for Pfizer to reach beyond its own walls to evoke collaborative alliances with the academy and biotech communities in order to provide Pfizer with the scope of scientific methods and technologies it needed to drive efficiency and productivity. Intrigued by potential of collaborative ventures, Nick then led a variety of functions simultaneously including the Strategic Alliances group, the Research Technology Center located in Cambridge Mass and an externally focused science and technology collaborative function. These three groups together conspired to tie Pfizer to the external research environment in a meaningful and productive manner. Nick was also helped design and build the Pfizer BBC located in South San Francisco with Dr. Corey Goodman.

Nick is also a consultant for several smaller biotech, CRO and venture investment organizations.

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